Can ‘The Prince of Thieves’ survive another big screen outing?

Robin Hood is a staple of English mythology, and many stories are attributed to this most famous of legends. Yet not many people are aware of how Robin Hood met his demise, and in this Hugh Jackman vehicle, the story is almost spot on, with some very large exceptions.

In this film, Jackman plays Robin Hood, the infamous outlaw who is not the hero he is made out to be, but rather a murderous thief and brigand who has lived a violent life. In his latter years, and with the his band of men either in hiding or dead, Robin’s twilight years are still filled with the violence and regrets that have haunted him for years.

This film has been on my radar for some time. I attended a preview of this film and I really hoped that I wouldn’t leave the cinema disappointed. Armed with the lore of Robin Hood, I went into this hoping the film-makers had some respect for the source material while offering a fresh take on the character. While the film in that sense was a success, there are issues that frankly I found to be too big to simply ignore.

The aesthetic of this film is dark and brooding, and matches the overall feeling that Robin carries with him every day, but makes very few apologies at the same time. The violence is very raw and brutal, and certainly something that is not attributed to the legend we all know and love. The only character we meet outside of Robin is Little John, now living under an assumed name and has a family.

The story is OK, it’s nothing ground-breaking, and on the surface is rather simple. The real story however lies between Robin and Jodie Comer’s character Sister Brigid. This reveals a major story point towards the end, and makes the final scenes between Robin and Brigid much more visceral. It’s here that the story starts to match closely to the established lore, and goes from OK to much more interesting.

The pacing, and the style in which this is filmed are the real drawbacks to this film. along with some scripting areas that just drag like a bag full of heavy rocks. The cast is really good, and they truly spend all of their time bringing their individual characters to life. The issue is how they are allowed to do that through both the script and the director. There’s a very ‘arthouse’ feel to this film, and while ordinarily I have no issue with this tonal style, it simply does not fit here. It is here that the film really started to loose me.

The set pieces themselves are filled with bloat, lots of exposition that really goes nowhere, offering nothing to the development of the story or the characters. It feels like these talky moments are added simply to fill the quiet void between the characters that would naturally exist otherwise. In that sense, some of the dialogue feels forced.

There’s no spandex here, no green suits that are immaculately clean. There are no ideas of do-gooding or selfless altruism. What you get here is a gritty, barebones drama that would probably fit the real world than most takes on this iconic character and story.

In summation, I quite enjoyed the film where it allowed me too, and there are many times during this movie that left me wondering what I was watching, and more importantly, why I was watching it. If you can get past the arthouse feel and at times, poor dialogue, you’ll enjoy this semi-fascinating alternate take on the legend that is, Robin Hood!

I give The Death of Robin Hood…

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Until the next review my friends, may your arrows fly straight and true, and your quiver always full.